HSU community collaborates to support Mexico, Puerto Rico

Melissa Vazquez, who has ties to Mexico, is helping to organize a fundraiser to help those affected by the recent earthquakes. The fundraiser also helps those affected by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
Sam Armanino — The Times-Standard

if you go

What: Humboldt Hearts Fundraiser

When: Noon-4 p.m., Oct. 14

Where: First Congregational Church, 900 Hodgson St., Eureka

A Humboldt State University student with connections to Mexico and a recent HSU graduate with family in Puerto Rico have joined forces to raise money to support the communities devastated by the recent disasters.

Both women are working with the Latinx Center for Academic Excellence to organize a fundraiser in the next couple of weeks.

The fundraiser to help those affect by the disasters is called “Humboldt Hearts Fundraiser” and will be held with Centro Del Pueblo at First Congregational Church in Eureka on Oct. 14.

Shortly after learning of the 8.1-magnitude earthquake that struck Mexico on Sept. 7, HSU student Melissa Vazquez called the host family she had spent 10 weeks living with while studying abroad in Oaxaca, Mexico, to make sure they were OK. Then she began to figure out ways to help the community members who weren’t as lucky.

Vazquez, who is double majoring in international studies and Spanish and is in her senior year, began her own fundraiser through a Oaxaca promoter she met during her time in Mexico.

“To me, it was a trip that transformed my life,” Vazquez said.

Ruby Joy Garcia, a recent HSU graduate and employee in the Center for Community Based Learning, has only been able to contact her family on and off since Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico. The Sept. 20 storm left almost 3.4 million Americans without electricity after taking down the island’s power grid. She hasn’t been in contact with her family since Sept. 27.

“They are all alive, but they can’t believe the devastation,” Garcia said.

While the two women are raising money for the affected communities, they both said it’s also about spreading awareness about the situations. Garcia said she will be speaking at the fundraiser about the corruption in Puerto Rico and why the response to the disaster is not what it should be.

“We all need to come together and do something now,” Garcia said.

Garcia said the main barrier getting the donations to the people is trying to find a way to ship them to the island. Garcia said the locals are describing it as “apocalyptic” and the worst state the island has been in.

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For Vazquez, the first quake in Mexico fired her up. It was after the second quake on Sept. 19 that she saw more people wanting to help.

“Little by little people began coming to me,” Vazquez said, which spurred a donation drive. “... For me, Mexico has been very near and dear to my heart because I would spend every summer there.”

So far, Vazquez said they have received a lot of material donations which have proven to be hard to ship. The money donations have been no problem to get directly to the families, but some people have donated canned food or clothes, which she is still trying to get to them.

“The cool thing about the people we know in Mexico is that it’s direct contact ... we know the money is going to the people,” Vazquez said.

For more information about the donation drive and to donate, Vazquez said to call the HSU Latinx Center for Academic Excellence at 707-826-4590. She also urged people to check out the donation page online at http://bit.ly/2eQatzr.